New figures show that 2518 police officers, construction workers, sanitation workers, city employees, volunteers, firefighters and paramedics have been diagnosed with various forms of the illness, theNew York Postreports.

An aerial view of the collapsing World Trade Center in New York. Courtesy of ABC News/NYPD/Detective Greg Semendinger via AFPSource:News Corp Australia

The event claimed more than 2700 lives, but it exposed hundreds and thousands more to dust, debris, pulverised building materials and toxic emissions in the wake of the twin towers’ collapse.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that there was an increased risk of prostate cancer, thyroid cancer and myeloma (bone marrow cancer) among the Ground Zero workers when compared to other New York State residents.

The 9/11 Memorial in New York City. Picture: Angela SaurineSource:Supplied

A growing number of those affected are seeking compensation for their illnesses, the Post reports.

A retired New York Fire Department captain, who worked non-stop at Ground Zero for a week after the event and for months after that, has been awarded $1.5 million from the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) as a result of his lung cancer and inoperable pancreatic cancer.

On 9/11, he was a musclebound 180kg, standing 185cm, but chemotherapy and radiation has emaciated his body to 72kg.

He brought the head of the VCF, Sheila Birnbaum, to tears when he testified at a hearing in May, saying how he loves his grandchildren, but is often too weak to play with them, and worries about his wife’s future given his grim prognosis.

“I’m hoping they rush more cases like mine, where we’re not expected to last long,” he told the Post.

Sufferers had made 1145 claims to the VCF as of June 30.

A cancer cluster is a greater than expected number of cancer cases among a group of people in a defined geographic area over a specific time period.

They are very rare and extremely hard to prove.

One often-cited case is from Woburn, Massachusetts, where 21 cases of childhood leukaemia were diagnosed from 1969 to 1986, including eight deaths.

Harvard School of Public Health biostatistician Marvin Zelen and a colleague discovered that the drinking water wells were contaminated with industrial pollutants and concluded that children who drank from the contaminated wells had a higher risk of developing leukaemia and various types of birth defects, including Down syndrome. However, some experts dismissed Dr Zelen’s methods and findings, however, according to the Journal of the national Cancer Institute.

One World Trade Center in the New York City skyline. Picture: AFP Photo/Timothy A ClarySource:AFP